Anyone who was worried when this time last year Shabaka announced he was taking an indefinite leave from playing saxophones that he’d be absent from our musical lives needn’t have feared. Shabaka has always been an artist who’s bottomless curiosity and desire for study has yielded a stream of brilliant rewards for his audience. And it seems that his decision to focus, at least for the foreseeable future, on exploring the wealth of the flute family has only redoubled his creative venturing.
The year began with the beguiling album Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge It’s Grace accompanied by a series of rave reviewed gigs. In fact Shabaka’s year has been a twelve-month tour of sorts as he travels the world playing shows and collaborating with an open-heart with like-minded souls he encounters along the way.
Now to end the year Shabaka surprises us with an EP called Possession which builds on themes from Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace – a deeply poetic work that NPR Music’s Robin Hilton called, “Maybe the most essential listening of the week, if not the year.”
Shabaka explains where Possession takes his development “Possession is the exploration of the free-floating liminal space which characterises the transition from one-dimensional sphere of awareness to another.” The EP’s five tracks manage to fit in guest appearances from a cast that includes guests Elucid, Billy Woods, Esperanza Spalding, Nduduzo Makhathini, Brandee Younger, Carlos Niño, Jason Moran and another man who has recently taken to the flute – Andre 3000.
Possession is yet another musical gift from this peerless artist.
This is our EP / Album Of The Week on One Jazz w/c Monday 9th December.